Thursday, June 19, 2008

all about buses

heard from SGForums that there will be another redeployment among SMRT bus fleets. From some old birds who are more familiar (eg, they know that TIB 425 R runs on Service 61, yeah you should get my meaning), it's actually an undeployment because it reverses much of the movements done in April.

i don't care about this micro redeployments - i hope SMRT/LTA can put up the 66 new standard length buses on revenue service soon. Newspapers proudly reported SMRT's CEO and her historical background and the "Better by Bus/Train" initiative in the past 2 months. Together with the initiative, they put big marketing dollars on incoming WAB Mercedes bus and launched it at University Cultural Centre of NUS.

the new fleet was supposed to arrive a month ago. Now? Nowhere to be seen. No press statements explaining the delay either. Not sure which organisation is holding things up, but it only goes to show the inefficiencies in either SMRT or LTA.

on another juicy news, a Service 168 bus captain lost his way from Bedok/Tampines to Woodlands. Apparently he missed the exit at Woodlands Ave 2, went to BKE, Woodlands Rd (?!) and ended up at Bt Panjang. There was a staff van guiding it, which was supposed to guide him from Woodlands Rd to BKE to Woodlands, but instead, went from BKE to Bt Panjang.

slap head... and know what?

passengers onboard tried in vain to persuade the captain to follow their directions, yet the captain insisted his way. Will passengers bring him to some funny places and rob him? Even if i don't factor in the nationality of the captain (Singaporean or Chinese national), i feel like laughing and crying. I believe the passengers onboard were fuming though.

reminded me of a similar incident a month ago on Service 161. Another captain also missed the exit, but he was familiar and smart enough to follow the signs at BKE. He got out at Woodlands Ave 3 and went via Marsiling MRT towards Woodlands interchange. I was inside, watching TV mobile while the captain apologised to everyone at the two MRT stations.

168 - yat lok fat. Literally, fat until Bt Panjang. Time to wack the captain and the guide.